A Good Night’s Sleep?

Ray’s night time sleeping habits are predictably unpredictable! We have no idea where he will sleep, or how often he will change his location during the night. We do know that we will find him in the morning in either the kitchen, the living room, or somewhere in between.

Just recently however, I had a bit of a surprise. I had got up around 2:30am (sometimes one just has to!), and upon returning to bed, and just as I was dozing off, I felt something quite heavy land on the end of the bed. I had absolutely no doubt that Ray had jumped up but this was very unusual. He sleeps on my bed a lot during the day but has rarely come up during the night.

As soon as he was up, he walked up the bed; took a good close look at me, and then curled up alongside me. To a casual reader this may seem to be one of those “Awe ……….. how cute” moments but you have to understand that 75lbs of Ray is a force to be reckoned with.

I like my space in bed. I like to be able to roll over as necessary to get comfortable. I like to be able to “bunch up” my pillow and move it for better head comfort. In short, having a Ray right alongside me really cramps my sleeping style so I do the logical (?) thing. Not only am I uncomfortable with feeling his weight against me, but he puts out a lot of heat so I move over a little!

This solved all my problems for about 5 minutes, or possibly less. Ray decided to stretch out to take advantage of the additional space, and also to rotate himself such that his head was also on a pillow.

Lifting my head up and looking at the scene in front of me (alongside me) was definitely a moment to smile about, but I really wanted to go back to sleep. I decided to once again move over just a little and, once again, Ray decided to use the additional space.

I was now at a point where any additional moving would take me out of the bed and on to the floor. I love this guy so much, I thought that rather than disturb him, I would just try and get to sleep in the narrow strip of bed that was available, and hope that I didn’t roll over (and out of the bed) during the night.

Why I thought that could possibly work is beyond my understanding and can only be explained by the fact that one’s brain is on reduced power at 2:30am. Trying to sleep on a piece of mattress probably not much more than 15 inches wide, and with Ray on one side of you and an 18 inch drop to the floor on the other side is not conducive to a good night’s sleep, or any other form of sleep!

Sometimes, one just has to take charge and so I pushed back forcing Ray to also move. He was now over on his half of the bed while I had my half and all was well. I settled down to hopefully a good sleep during what was left of the night, and Ray was …………. what was he doing? Ray had decided that “enough is enough” and got up. He then decided to jump off the bed and go to sleep somewhere else!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

32 thoughts on “A Good Night’s Sleep?”

  1. Ah, I do understand your sleeping predicament very well, Colin. Chuck/Charlie/C-Dog also sleeps with us and he does like his space until he wants to get under the covers (he’s part terrier) and then he gets hot, starts panting, which wakes me up and then we have to “shift.” Mind you, this is also with at least 3 of 4 cats ALSO sharing the bed!

    Say, have you been traveling of late? We need to catch up. I think I might owe you an email! I’m so behind I don’t even know how behind I am, 🙂

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    • Hi Bev: Knowing how much fur Ray leaves on my bed, I cannot imagine a dog and a bunch of cats! 🙂 I imagine that it’s a very energy efficient arrangement on a cold winter’s night – no electric blanket necessary! As for traveling? Yes. I was in N.Vancouver for a couple of weeks. The blogging survived via free WiFi Cafes!:)

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  2. it’s amazing that the space dogs take on the bed is not relative to their size. Even my daughter’s 10 lb. Smokey can dominate our queen size bed on nights when he decides to “visit”. We invited Kali up one night in a moment of weakness ( our idea not hers) and I had a very similar experience to your’s and Ray’s. She didn’t seem to mind the cramped shared space and like you as I moved towards the side of the bed she consumed the newly vacated few inches until my legs were hanging off the side of the bed!
    Let sleeping dogs lie as long as they are in their own beds….

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  5. Brings back memories of my black cat Jake who loved to crawl into the middle of the bed and stretch out with his head on the pillow. We have a king bed but the first time I rolled over to see a fuzzy black head on the pillow was quite a shock. He only did that when he was young. Eventually he preferred to sleep uninterrupted by either of us rocking the bed. We have a cat who occasionally sleeps at the back of the bed but she’s a 7 pounder and doesn’t take up much room. Obviously you were interrupting Ray’s sleep!

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  8. I feel your pain! Oreo sleeps between us nightly. Most nights, there are no issues. However, sometimes he wants to lay perpendicular to us and stretch. .. which pushes both of us towards the edge. Just like you wrote, kinda hard to lay in 15 inches of space! Luckily, Oreo is only 40 lbs and easily rotated.

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  10. You’re lucky to have 15 inches of bed, I get about 5 and sleep sideways. I’ve always been one to perch on the edge anyway, and Maggie was content to curl up behind my knees and sleep the night away. When it got really cold, she would snuggle between us, then put her back against me, her four feet against Hubby and push! We had spare rooms then, so Hubby could always go in one of those if he couldn’t get back in. On the boat, it’s different. Maggie curls up in the bottom corner nearest the boat side, which is the side I sleep. Hubby has the galley side, and I make sure he has plenty of space and blankets after I get in. Like you, I like to get myself comfy, but with a dog on one side (she’s now snuggled up between me and the boat wall) and Hubby on the other, it can be a bit of a game. It doesn’t help that our mattress was only 4 feet wide, and when we washed the cover, it shrank, so is now only 46 inches as we had to cram it in. Most of the time though, I sleep surprisingly well!

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